Wash & Learn Initiative

Laundromats provide an ideal space to engage with busy families. Clients return weekly and wait an average of 90 minutes for their clothes to wash and dry. Laundromats are open almost 24/7, providing a space to learn even after the library has closed. LWB has worked in partnership with public libraries and community-based organizations to design, implement, and evaluate the Wash & Learn Initiative (WALI) in 8 states and the District of Columbia.

The Laundry & Literacy Coalition

In March 2017, Libraries Without Borders partnered with the LaundryCares Foundation and Too Small to Fail to create the Laundry Literacy Coalition. This national coalition of libraries and community-based organizations works together to share best-practices and tools. Our goal is to scale literacy programs to the waiting areas of all 30,000 coin laundries across the United States.

I’m a mom with 3 kids and 2 jobs. I want to take a computer class at the library, but my work schedule is always changing and I can’t afford to miss a shift. This program lets me learn on my own time.

— WALI Participant in Detroit

Literacy & laundromats: documented potential

Librarian engaging with a child at a “Laundry & Literacy Kit” launch site in New York.

In 2018, Dr. Susan Neuman, Professor of Childhood and Literacy Education at New York University, conducted a two-phase pilot experimental study of New York spaces equipped with the “Laundry & Literacy Kit”. Created by the collaboration of Too Small to Fail, the LaundryCares Foundation, and Libraries Without Borders, the robust “Laundry & Literacy Kit” consists of high-quality materials designed to create playful, literacy-rich spaces for young children and families in the laundromat environment.

The findings from this evaluation demonstrate that the laundromat can serve as an important environment for early literacy development.

Children were observed engaging in 30 times more literacy activities in laundromats that include the literacy areas compared to laundromats that did not have these areas.

The librarian’s presence in the laundromat prompted children to engage in significantly more sustained literacy-related activities, compared to the control sites.

Parents were more much likely to observe their children’s literacy activities than they were to engage in them, having had more opportunities to observe ideal models of interactive reading and language-rich activities and seemed delighted with their children’s accomplishments.

Customers had high praise for the literacy spaces and felt greater loyalty to the laundromat. Some families noted that they visited these laundromats because of the presence of the “Laundry & Literacy Kits.” Customers even suggested that these spaces showed them that laundromat owners cared about their community.

Wash & Learn Initiative National Sites

This is a list of all the past, present, and upcoming WALI national pop-up sites in the United States. Follow our Twitter @BSF_USA and Instagram @librarieswithoutborders to keep updated on our ongoing programs.